מה חייבים ללמוד ממלחמת שמחת תורה? • שיעור יסודי לציון ימי הטבח | הרב אלישע וולפסון

To all the holy congregation, to all the rabbis, may they live and be well. I would like to address the matters of the day, as the people of Israel are now occupied with the memory of the Simchat Torah war and its aftermath. Uh . It is always the case that when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings events upon us, we must ensure that we both observe them and give them their proper meaning in reality, just as the holy Torah guides us. If we stand on the sidelines, then others will define their content according to the perspectives of people who are not connected to our values. Therefore it is important—not only for that reason , but also fundamentally—to contemplate and think about what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants from us. The people of Israel have gone through a very difficult and significant event, and we must contemplate what the Holy One, blessed be He, is telling us and what we should do with these days. So first of all, When we look at the holy Torah, we are commanded a great deal regarding memory. We are supposed to walk around all day with tefillin, a " memorial between your eyes," yes. >> Even on the Temple Mount. >> Certainly, even on the Temple Mount— which is a merit, and you are already increasing that merit here. The hand-tefillin, the head-tefillin—so that all the peoples of the earth may see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they shall fear you. So there is a constant commandment to remember, to remember. That is why we wear tefillin: to remember the commandment, to remember God's love for us, and to remember the redemption. And we have, yes, the ten remembrances in our prayer books, which the sages established for us. >> Yes, and of course, of course. In this context, we indeed have the commandment of remembering the annihilation of Amalek, which, while in its simple sense it refers specifically to the seed of Amalek whom we know to be Amalek, several authorities have already written that anyone who wishes to destroy the people of Israel because they are Israel is considered to be in the category of Amalek. This is something to discuss from a strictly Halachic perspective, but simply put, logic certainly dictates this. >> Exactly. >> Uh, yes. And...and we, at this time, in this time, yes, both on Shmini Atzeret and unfortunately still—every day enemies rise up against us who simply want to annihilate us, that the name of Israel be remembered no more, just as it is written: "They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people...the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre," and so on. Everyone who surrounds us here, as is often said, on seven fronts—our enemies simply seek to destroy the people of Israel, quite literally. And for this, we have a commandment. Truly, unfortunately, anyone who has become acquainted, even just a little bit, with the massacre— I...I really don't want to, these things are just so difficult; we must remember them, though I don’t know what the right dosage is, because being exposed to them is so horrific, so painful to the soul. But when you hear even a tiny bit of the descriptions from the ZAKA personnel, just the bare minimum—the soul is torn by pain, by rage, by a deep, true internal fury to destroy this evil from the world, to take vengeance and atone for His land and His people. And we must not forget it. That is exactly what the Torah commands. A positive commandment, a negative commandment, to wipe out the path, to never forget what he did to us . And we have a commandment, a commandment to remember the terrible evil that these cursed wicked ones did to us, and we know—and they say it explicitly—that they want to do it to us even now: in Judea, in Samaria, in Jerusalem, in Lod, and everywhere they possibly could. And therefore, we have a great commandment here from the Torah to remember this evil; first and foremost from the law of "do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor," and by the law of "and live by them." As my father, may the Lord protect and sustain him, said—that we are unfortunately sometimes, because of the excessive mercy ingrained in us, because the people of Israel truly prefer—as terrible as it is to say— they prefer to be slaughtered rather than to slaughter. Yes, and to truly have this internal strength? Just as our forefather Abraham, here in this holy place, needed the self-sacrifice to overcome the trait of mercy, right? In order to bind his son. Self-sacrifice to the Holy One, blessed be He, to overcome the trait of mercy. So too, the people of Israel must overcome their enemies. It requires self-sacrifice to overcome the trait of mercy and to remember. And that is by remembering these cursed wicked ones, and destroying them long before they, heaven forbid, find the chance; may the Lord grant strength, might, and courage to our leaders. >> From Abraham to Saul to David, for this very reason he took... >> Saul could not, could not overcome the mercy; he could not. >> Who? >> Saul, yes, yes. >> True, this is a very, very fundamental, very deep matter; there is much to delve into here. So that is one thing, one foundation that is deeply connected to... >> To this memory of... >> The Simchat Torah war, the War of Rebirth. Another thing, in contrast, is the immense, amazing, inconceivable self-sacrifice of the people of Israel, who truly arose from a very difficult division, and unfortunately, there were also those critical hours that took time... >> It took time to repent, but when they felt the magnitude of the pain, it can truly be said that everyone repented, and the self-sacrifice for one another among the people of Israel is indescribable, no matter...Not the same opinions, not the same sector, not anything—the people of Israel arose as one man with one heart, truly righteous Jews who simply sacrificed their lives for the people of Israel. There are endless stories about heroes like lions who arose, so many who were killed, who were wounded, who were kidnapped, who simply showed true self-sacrifice for the people of Israel . And this is truly to draw strength and inspiration from them, and to stir up a merit for the people of Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He: " What children You have!" What, what, what righteous people! Truly, what righteous people. What is this? Is this , uh, martyrs for the kingdom? You could say that’s small compared to them. "Martyrs for the kingdom" is a person killed because they are a Jew. These are people who left their homes with self-sacrifice, even without being called and without anyone telling them, and they went into the fire and returned, and went in and returned and went in again. It is truly our duty to recognize and acknowledge and, uh, learn from these holy, righteous ones, and also to pray for all the wounded, uh, physically wounded, mentally wounded, all—may they all have a complete recovery. >> Amen. >> People are suffering so, so much; I know very close friends. The soldiers are the same. >> Yes, of course, of course, all the soldiers, there was a 150%recruitment rate, something like that, like everyone, everyone wants to, it’s something truly that there is nothing like it in the world, it’s—it’s truly something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, one must understand. >> With the help of God. >> People are returning from abroad, from, from a trip, when they didn’t have anything on their minds, and they come, enter the hellscape with immense self-sacrifice; so this is a very, very , very big thing. Another thing that is very special that we see, and it is only growing stronger in these days, is repentance—the spirit of repentance, the spirit of purity that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is breathing into the people of Israel: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be purified." So, it truly comes from great pain, but to see the...first of all, even right in the, in the beginning of the war, it was impossible to describe; a wave of everyone calling out the name of the Lord with a loud voice, everyone wanting tzitzit, stories of miracles, taking upon themselves the holy Sabbath, it’s incredible. An endless number of amazing, startling stories of enormous miracles in the midst of all the mess and the great confusion. So many, many, many mighty, wondrous miracles that happened, truly endless stories of repentance, of awakening, of drawing close to God, and later also with the hostages who returned and are returning and are bringing the people of Israel to heaven. By way of faith, I chose, uh , that this must be understood: it is not a one-time event. The Holy One, Blessed is He, is keeping His promise that He promised through the prophets that the people of Israel will return in repentance, "and I will place My spirit within you," and it’s just happening, it is simply...So much, both in the nation of Israel as a whole and in individuals. With the hostages, who are simply awakening the people of Israel to repent, to keep the commandments of God, to draw close to Him, to pray to Him. So many moving stories and strengthening, uh, really from one and all, it is...And it is truly part of understanding this. Very comforting. That this war, when you look at it from a broad perspective, then indeed there was very, very, very great pain here, very, very great, but one sees how the Holy One, Blessed is He, takes this and it is literally the birth pangs of redemption. First of all , we were in immense, immense, immense, immense mortal danger; it has already been published that there were actual written documents that they planned to simply invade the entire Land of Israel at once, with missiles from Iran and the militias from, uh, of course from Hezbollah and from the Houthis, from Jordan, in short—it was real. >> Yes, the heart literally...it was... >> Jerusalem. >> Like Jerusalem, Lod, and so on, Judea and Samaria—meaning, there was an attempt here built not in a day and not in a month, but over 20 years, to strike a blow that, God forbid, would destroy the people of Israel. That was the intent, and by the way of nature, may God have mercy, it was very close to that, it was very close to it. It was an inconceivable danger, and the Holy One, blessed be He, in His abundant mercy, in His vast mercy, took this hiddenness, this pain, and completely turned it around. Meaning, instead of us being at the very bottom of the world in ruin, the people of Israel are blossoming, blossoming, blossoming, and striking their enemies. Who would believe it? So many miracles, the strike from Iran. The whole world stands in astonishment. They fire missiles at us, missiles as if they were firecrackers. Like, yeah, and? The Holy One, blessed be He, is still here. We had such a treat of mercies just this past Sukkot, with the plane that was simply mind-blowing. So, the Holy One, blessed be He, shows us how much He loves us, how He watches over us, how much He loves us, how everything is orchestrated. And how the settlement of the territories, which the people of Israel have experienced since the Simchat Torah war three years ago until now, is indescribable. Anyone who knows a little bit about what...The territories that the people of Israel have returned to, returned to the inheritance of their ancestors after so many years that we were frozen under fences and you were afraid to step out of the fence—suddenly every place where you set foot is yours. Dread falls upon the enemies, they simply run away. I know it up close, in so many, many places. Really, without, even without anything, just Jews came, put up a tent, put up what, some piece of plywood, simply the enemies. >> They fled, they fled! Dread falls upon them, it is simply miracles. We were just there during Sukkot, in several places...in places the Arabs simply abandoned the area, fled from the place . It is a huge wonder! Full of places all across the land, and of course now, now our soldiers, may the Holy One, blessed be He, protect them in Lebanon, deep in Lebanon, the people of Israel. So we see that it started with very, very great pain, but we...the Holy One, blessed be He, managed everything. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, for though I have fallen, I have risen; when I sit in darkness, the Lord is a light to me. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? The Lord said: I am everything! These are the birth pangs of, of redemption, and of course, in...At the head of everything, it is this place, this place, the Temple Mount. Because at the end of the day, the war in Gaza, the war in Lebanon and in Syria and in Iran. >> And in Yemen, but in reality...The place that is, the war is about it. >> It is about this place, the Temple Mount. ( >> Incomprehensible) >> Our enemies called out even before the war and after the war that their war is over this place. For this place they are fighting. Why for this place? What do they have from this place? Because they know that everything, everything, everything depends on this place. It is the root of the entire Land of Israel. And as the famous Uri Gringer said: He who controls the Mount controls the Land. It is, after all, a deep, true, internal expression of what the Holy Torah says: that Mount Moriah is the root of all existence, the Foundation Stone from which the world was established, the Temple Mount— everything, everything depends on this holy place. And that is why our enemies know that as long as they hold this place, as long as they are here, as long as they rule here, they can overcome us, and that is why they do not despair and why they fight. But the moment we rule here with a high hand, fully and completely, and return to our Temple site—not just around it, but to the site of the Temple itself. Right now we are getting closer, we are on the Temple Mount, but the site of the Temple is still walked upon by the uncircumcised. When we have the courage , the internal repentance to redeem the dwelling place of the Divine Presence, to "shake ourselves from the dust, arise," for it is said that the " uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come into you." When we shake ourselves off, cleanse Jerusalem, instill the Divine Presence, and instill holiness, then our enemies will truly surrender; then that will be the victory. Yes, everyone is talking about the victory, the absolute victory, seven fronts—this is the victory. The victory is here on the Temple Mount, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the victory is here and you know it. And we also say tremendous strength for the progress in this place where we already pray and sing and dance, with prayer sheets and prayer books, but they want to win, to truly win, is to allow the people of Israel to return to this place completely. Not just a few hours here or half here. This is the place of the people of Israel, to declare it first of all at the top of our lungs. >> It is not a holy place for all religions. It is >> the place of the people of Israel. The people of Israel return to their ancestors 'inheritance. The people of Israel return to Mount Moriah. The place that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave to our forefather Abraham. And King David bought it for full price, and we have returned to this holy place to serve the Almighty. How did the Prime Minister put it? Immersion in the Siloam to be purified, to be sanctified , to the Temple Mount, ascending to the Temple. So this war, Simchat Torah, places us with our hearts, with our hearts toward the Holy Temple. How much awakening for the Temple there is, how many Temple flags, how many Temple stickers, how much talk about the Temple, how much yearning for the Temple. The people of Israel are returning to the Temple. And it is truly our task, we must understand, the Holy One, Blessed be He, that this is the great consolation, but it is also painful. The great consolation is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not stop the redemption midway. If we fall asleep, then the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives us a painful blow, but the people of Israel awaken. But we do not want it to be through suffering; we want it to be through mercy, and for it to be through mercy we must act from this point of memory: to remember to wipe out all our enemies, not to wait for them again, God forbid, to rise against us. To wipe them out now, to inherit our entire Holy Land and return to the Rabbi, to the site of the Temple , to the place of the Divine Presence, to serve the Name in this holy place, for there He commanded the blessing, life forevermore. May the Name help us that from these days we shall grow, all the people of Israel, toward peace and unity. >> Toward the fear of the Name and the love of Him. >> Amen. >> And through this, may we merit the rebuilding of the Holy Temple speedily in our days, and may it be His will, and let us say amen.